- Posted
- July 31, 2015
50th Anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid marked this week
A “sleeper” provision when Congress created Medicare in 1965 to cover health care for seniors, Medicaid now provides coverage to nearly 1 in 4 Americans, at an annual cost of more than $500 billion. Today, it is the workhorse of the U.S. health system, covering nearly half of all births, one-third of children and two-thirds of people in nursing homes (“5 Challenges Facing Medicaid at 50,” Kaiser Health News, July 27, 2015).
As Medicaid and Medicare turn 50, Ohio is nearing a related milestone of its own: Soon, 5 million of the state’s 11.6 million residents will rely on at least one of the two massive government programs for their health care (“Medicare, Medicaid reach 50th birthday among questions on future,” Columbus Dispatch, July 30, 2015).